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Morgan Stanley May Wait on Smith Barney

By

Aaron Lucchetti And

Brett Philbin

Updated Nov. 4, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

Morgan Stanley could use some wiggle room to help meet looming capital requirements. One option: delaying parts of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney takeover from co-owner Citigroup Inc., which would leave billions of dollars in the securities firm's pocket.

While Morgan Stanley has no plans to call off or postpone its deal to buy by 2014 the 49% stake in the brokerage firm that it doesn't already own, Chief Executive James Gorman told...